Pelosi: Hillary is more prepared than Obama was

Ed MorrisseyPosted at 2:41 pm on September 23, 2013

Consider this a bit of a midday palate-cleanser, as CNN’s Candy Crowley manages to wrongfoot Nancy Pelosi during a weird pitch for Hillary Clinton. It’s not often one will see a leading pol endorse a candidate before the candidate even bothers to set up an exploratory committee, let alone announce the candidacy, but Pelosi told Crowley for State of the Union that when Hillary gets in the race, she’ll win it … even though a few other Democrats might want to run for the nomination as well. Pelosi also claims that Hillary would be the “best prepared” candidate to enter the White House, which leaves out the current VP, who has made it clear he’s interested in the job, too.

Oh, and Obama wasn’t very well prepared, either — at least not as prepared as Hillary:

No surprise here, but Nancy Pelosi hopped on the Hillary bandwagon on Sunday, telling CNN’s Candy Crowley in no uncertain terms, “When she becomes president, she will be one of the best-equipped, best-prepared people to enter the White House in a very long time.” Having a female ensconced at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, she added, “would be magnificent for America.”

On the question of experience, the House minority leader was unequivocal, saying that the former first lady would be more prepared than the current president as well as his two predecessors. “With all due respect to our president, and I think he is magnificent and wonderful and a blessing to us, [Clinton would] certainly [be] more prepared than President Obama, certainly more prepared than President Bush, certainly more prepared than President Clinton,” she said. George H. W. Bush, having served as vice president under Ronald Reagan, was very prepared to assume the presidency, in Pelosi’s estimation.

More prepared than Bush 43 or even her own husband? Both of them had multiple terms as governors in their respective states before running for the presidency, accumulating plenty of executive experience in the public sector. George W. Bush also ran businesses in the private sector. I’m assuming Pelosi can explain how eight years in the Senate, and four years as the purveyor of reset buttons and not much of anything else but Benghazi at State, compares to that experience. Speaking of Benghazi, how prepared was Hillary to deal with a potential terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11, in what became Terrorist Central in North Africa because of the US-led intervention against Moammar Qaddafi pushed by Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State? Ahem.

The best part, though, is watching Pelosi stammer when Crowley brings up Joe Biden. “Well, I’m talking about the presidents that we’ve had,” she backtracks, adding, “You know, when they just announce that they’re running …” Maybe she should just stick to that answer from now on.